Community-Based Mapping in South Bend, Indiana Using ArcGIS Collector Matthew L. Sisk GIS Librarian Center for Digital Scholarship Hesburgh Libraries Eck Institute for Global Health University of Notre Dame
Community Based Research Collaboration between academics and community in design and implementation of research Goal is more focused on positive social change than traditional research products
Project Partners Center for Social Concerns (Notre Dame) Center for Digital Scholarship (Notre Dame) City of South Bend Near Northwest Neighborhood Indiana University: South Bend South Bend Mutual Homes
South Bend ~100,000 residents Most industry left before the 1960 s Decreasing population until recently Many urban renewal projects
Population Density
Near Northwest Neighborhood ~6,000 residents Very diverse neighborhood Four historic districts Community development organization NNN Inc.
Project History Initially a collaboration between Center for Social Concerns and NNN Inc. When technological questions arose, expanded to include Center for Digital Scholarship Included City of South Bend to ensure data compatibility Initially planned to host Phase 2 data
Data Collection Record property conditions, vacant properties and landuse across the neighborhood Repeat annually to assess impacts of any interventions Two stages 2014: Pilot with Notre Dame students 2015-2017: Expansion to include residents
Data Collection: Phase 1 1 credit class 9 students Trained in assessing building and property conditions
Recording Conditions ArcGIS Online hosted map Data layers built from City of South Bend s parcel layer Editable Feature Service Includes prepopulated fields Photographs as attachments Using ArcGIS Collector Platform from ESRI Requires institutional site license Allows mobile editing and creation of features using basic templates Offline capabilities
Data collection via mobile devices ios or Android
Variables Collected Variable Building Condition Site Condition Land Use Occupancy Comments Boarding Needed? Fire Damage? Dumping Present? Possible Values Uninhabitable -> Excellent Very Poor -> Excellent Single Family, Multi Family, Commercial, Vacant Lot, etc. Occupied/Unoccupied/ Status Unclear Often used for new construction Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No
Results: Phase 1 Documented approximately 50 % of the neighborhood Focused on more variable areas Photographic documentation works well despite variable conditions Students became more adept at software and assessment protocols Data made available to community partners and Notre Dame researchers Problems Frequent difficulty syncing ipad version easy to delete features or move vertices
http://arcg.is/1lxmyjs
Data Collection: Phase 2 Class postponed until Spring 2016 Expanded to include residents Problem with licensed software (ArcGIS) Partially solved by using web-enabled layer Split layer into property and structure conditions Request from community partners Slight increase in recording time More useful for visualization and for data of particular interest to stakeholders
SCREENSHOT OF WEB COLLECTION APP: LINK FOR LIVE DEMO http://arcg.is/1m0qdy7
Phase 2: Lincoln Park Data collection Expansion to the neighborhood directly south of the NNN Identical data collection protocol Joint project between IUSB, South Bend Mutual Homes and ND
Conclusions Feedback from initial Phase 1 led to methodological improvements in Phase 2 Better training of students in assessment Pairing of students and community members Data can be used by city planners and code enforcement Yields data for community development corporation to show improvement or priority areas Gives students a better tie to the community
Future Directions Continue annually in NNN and Lincoln Park Using property condition data into lead risk assessments Integration of photographs and records into Building South Bend project http://buildingsouthbend.nd.edu/